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14
ABRAM
Cambria was right about a lot of things. She was right about how the shooting was all my fault, and she was right about the fact that I feel incentivized to stay by her side because of my unusual relationship with her.
After she said that, I realized that I had spent almost no time visiting with Ariella in the hospital, and I hadn’t even reached out to Mandi since I found her in the VIP room at the club. I was so clouded by my feelings for Cambria that I completely shirked my responsibilities as the leader of my company. I feel like a fool.
When Cambria finally falls asleep, I leave for work. I couldn’t give her the satisfaction of hearing me leave, even though she knows she needs someone to take care of her. A head injury like hers is no joke, and I’ve done enough passive research to know that she’s at risk for all kinds of complications if anything goes awry. I prepared for my role as her caretaker, and she’ll see that soon enough.
I’ve been back at the club since the attack, but I haven’t really made a proper statement about what happened. I haven’t apologized or implemented any measures to keep it from happening again. The way Cambria described me brought my intentions to light, and I feel like a weak man because of it.
Part of me hates her for making me feel that way.
The other part of me knows that I need to do better.
When I walk into the building, the first person I see is Josiah.
“Hey, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” I say, joining him as he leans on the wall near the side stage. He’s closely watching a girl named Tierney as she dances, but I see more judgment in his eyes than intrigue. He’s always like that.
“Yeah, what is it?” he asks without taking his eyes off her.
“I decided to make some changes around the club. I have a list of things to go over with you. We can talk about it in my office,” I reply, doing my best to appear like this has nothing to do with Cambria.
“Well, what kinds of changes are they? If you’re talking about remodeling the downstairs and adding another bar, you can forget it,” he says. “We don’t have enough customers after the shooting.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s mostly about security. After what happened, I want to make sure everyone feels safe coming to work, or we’ll lose all of our best people as well as the customers,” I reply.
“They shouldn’t feel safe coming to work. Do you know how much money these women make compared to other strippers in the city? They’re already getting a pretty fat risk premium. They know what they’re getting into when they start here. It comes with the territory,” he says defensively, gesturing vaguely to Tierney as she grows aware of his presence.
She pauses for a moment on the pole, self consciously glancing at him before she continues.
“That shouldn’t be the case, though. They’re still bringing in tons of money for us, and now half of them don’t even want to step foot in here. We’ve had more call-outs in the past two weeks than we ever have in a year. Even if we fired all of them and hired new girls, the club has a reputation now,” I reply.
“What you need to do is remind these girls where they came from. Half of them would have been perfectly happy getting gangbanged behind a dumpster for a ball of cocaine and a day-old donut,” he says, laughing to himself. “Even if they were out doing their best in thereal world, they’d be paying hundreds per month for health insurance, counting how many grains of rice they have to last them the week after they pay rent to some roach-infested luxury apartment complex.”
I sigh heavily, rolling my eyes. “Okay, so I definitely don’t want them to believe that they would be happier and safer resorting to that. I’m not trying to hold them hostage with their pay.”
The next girl walks up on stage, a sweet redheaded girl named Annika. She waves at Josiah, who glares at her with contempt. I want to punch him in the teeth just for that, if not everything else.
“Listen, son. These girls should be worshipping the ground you walk on for giving them this kind of opportunity. If they complain because they might have gotten shot at, tell them to go find any club in Chicago that hasn’t been shot up,” he says, crossing his arms and staring daggers into Annika as she begins her set.
I’m starting to think that he just likes to make women uncomfortable. It’s like he gets off on that rather than watching them dance at all. He’s always been sort of slimy, but now I’m really starting to dislike his character.
Sure, I’m not exactly a raging feminist, but I’m certainly better than him.
Josiah coughs a bit. “I mean, what are you going to do, retaliate against the cartel? You already mowed down some of their best men. You killed Fari, for fucksake. You think that attack wasn’t planned weeks in advance? They were coming for your life.”
I know he’s right about that. The likelihood of another attack of that caliber is low unless they have an endless supply of willing, capable men who will jump in front of a bullet on command.
“Whatever, I came to you to go over my plans as a courtesy. I don’t need your permission to hire a few more security guards. You barely even do anything around here.”
Before he can answer, I storm down to my office.
My fingers move quickly over my phone screen, texting James to meet with me whenever he can. If my uncle is going to give me problems about wanting to keep my girls safer, then I need one of my men on the ground to help me figure out what to do.
Josiah is far too removed from reality. His head is too far up his own ass.
About a half-hour later, James enters my office with a questioning, uncertain expression. “Hey, what’s up? You said you wanted to talk to me about something?”
